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Manhunt over as police track down sex attacker Barry Dettman who ‘walked away’ from prison in rural Victoria

BREAKING: A sex offender who escaped from a minimum security prison in Victoria with one month left to serve has been caught by police.

2 min read
April 17, 2017 - 6:09PM
Barry Dettman, 51, left Langi Kal Kal Prison about 10am Sunday and was last seen walking east along the Western Highway in Trawalla.
Barry Dettman, 51, left Langi Kal Kal Prison about 10am Sunday and was last seen walking east along the Western Highway in Trawalla.

A SEX offender who escaped from a minimum security prison in Victoria with one month left to serve has been caught by police.

Police remain unsure Barry Dettman, 51, managed to walk free of the facility before he was spotted in Werribee, on Melbourne’s western outskirts, about 5pm on Sunday.

He had walked out of Langi Kal Kal Prison at 10am. The prison is understood to be housing for prisoners approaching the end of their sentence.

Dettman is serving time for offences including indecent acts in the presence of a child and wilful and obscene exposure.

On Monday afternoon, pictures of Dettman emerged on social media in the back of a police vehicle. Nine News reported he was back in custody.

Police said they were alerted to Dettman’s escape during a count at the facility.

“When the count was done this morning he wasn’t present,” Crime Command’s Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Phyland said.

“We’re certainly determined to locate him so we’d ask that he’s hand himself in.”

Dettman’s mother, who asked not to be named, earlier told the Herald Sun: “People seem to think he is some kind of sex monster. He is not ... he is not dangerous at all.”

She said he has done the wrong thing and should hand himself in.

It is believed he walked away from the prison, with the alarm only being raised three hours later when Dettman was seen by a member of the public.

The Herald Sun reported Dettman “would not have been able to escape from prison during the night because prisoners were in lockdown”.

“I haven’t all those details (about how Dettman escaped),” Detective Senior Sergeant Michael Phyland, of Victoria Police Crime Command said.

“It is a lower-security prison.”

Meanwhile, Victorian Mental Health Minister Martin Foley criticised the prison farm for “failing to do its job”.

“I think what this shows is that services need to do their job. I would express my disappointment that Langi Kal Kal failed to do its job.”

He is known to have connections with the Bendigo and Werribee areas. Prisoners are sometimes transferred to Langi Kal Kal towards the end of their sentence and it is believed Dettman had less than a month to serve, police told reporters.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/crime/manhunt-for-sex-attacker-barry-dettman-who-walked-away-from-prison-in-rural-victoria/news-story/92e40a9188e79f65f900afd20d2a75dd